The Treasure of the Church

Today is St. Lawrence Day.

Most Protestants generally don’t know a great deal about saints and their days, except for maybe Valentine and Patrick, although they seem now to be more commercial than devotional. (And please don’t try to insist that eating chocolate candy and drinking green beer are devotional exercises!)

But let’s get back to St. Lawrence. A major figure from our Christian past. A major spiritual figure and someone I believe we ought to know about. Yet, apart from the various seaways, rivers, and colleges that bear his name, I’d be willing to bet that most folks have never even heard of him.

Nevertheless, I think his story can inspire us all, for it’s one that speaks to the heart of what it means to be a Christ follower.

He was a servant (by title, he was a deacon whose vocation was to assist the clergy in doing Christ’s work in the world); he was a defender of the faith (that is, he stood against those who tried to undermine and destroy Christianity); and he was a martyr (that is, he was murdered for his defense of the faith and his embodiment of the teachings of Jesus).

According to the New Book of Festivals and Commemorations, the Roman Emporer Valerian began an unrelenting and systematic persecution of the Church in 257 A.D. He seized as many of the assets and properties of the Church as he could (although he knew this was not everything) and he declared that Christians were forbidden to gather for worship. On August 4, 258, the bishop of Rome (i.e., pope) and his deacons were arrested in the cemetery of Callistus where they had secretly gathered to worship. Everyone, except Lawrence—who escaped--were executed and buried in that same cemetery.

Lawrence, of course, was a marked man. But the emporer realized that since the bishop and other deacons had been murdered, Lawrence was the only person who knew where the rest of the Church’s treasure was kept. So he instructed his army to find Lawrence and demand that he bring the riches of the Church to him.

After he was found and told what he was to do, Lawrence then gathered together a large number of the poor, the lame, the widows, the orphans, and the sick and brought them to the palace. “THESE!” he said to the emporer, “These are the treasures of the Church!”

The emporer was incensed and decreed that not only would Lawrence be put to death, but his death would be slow and torturous. On August 10, 258, Lawrence was placed on a gridiron (an iron grill) and publicly roasted to death.

Apart from this story, not much else is known of St. Lawrence. But we do know this much, he lived and died for Christ. Which, if you think about it, is precisely what we’re all called to do.

Almighty God, you called your deacon Lawrence to serve you with deeds of love and gave him the crown of martyrdom: Grant that we, following his example, may fulfill your commandments by defending and supporting the poor, and by loving you with all our hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.  (Prayer for St. Lawrence Day)